Yiddish

Yid·dish

Y0020400 (yĭd′ĭsh)n. The language historically of Ashkenazic Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, resulting from a fusion of elements derived principally from medieval German dialects and secondarily from Hebrew and Aramaic, various Slavic languages, and Old French and Old Italian.

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[Yiddish yidish, Jewish, Yiddish, from Middle High German jüdisch, Jewish, from jude, jüde, Jew, from Old High German judo, from Latin Iūdaeus; see Jew.]

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Yid′dish adj.

Yiddish

(ˈjɪdɪʃ) n (Languages) a language spoken as a vernacular by Jews in Europe and elsewhere by Jewish emigrants, usually written in the Hebrew alphabet. Historically, it is a dialect of High German with an admixture of words of Hebrew, Romance, and Slavonic origin, developed in central and E Europe during the Middle Agesadj (Languages) in or relating to this language[C19: from German jüdisch, from Jude Jew]

Yid•dish

(ˈyɪd ɪʃ)

n. 1. a language of central and E European Jews and their descendants elsewhere: based on Rhenish dialects of Middle High German with an admixture of vocabulary from Hebrew and Aramaic, the Slavic languages, and other sources, and written in the Hebrew alphabet. adj. 2. of or pertaining to Yiddish. [1885–90]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

Yiddish - a dialect of High German including some Hebrew and other words; spoken in Europe as a vernacular by many Jews; written in the Hebrew scriptschtick, schtik, shtick, shtik - (Yiddish) a devious trick; a bit of cheating; "how did you ever fall for a shtik like that?"pisha paysha - (Yiddish) a card game for two players one of whom is usually a child; the deck is place face down with one card face upward; players draw from the deck alternately hoping to build up or down from the open card; the player with the fewest cards when the deck is exhausted is the winnermeshugaas, mishegaas, mishegoss - (Yiddish) craziness; senseless behavior or activityschtick, schtik, shtick, shtik - (Yiddish) a prank or piece of clowning; "his shtik made us laugh"schtick, schtik, shtick, shtik - (Yiddish) a contrived and often used bit of business that a performer uses to steal attention; "play it straight with no shtik"tsuris - (Yiddish) aggravating trouble; "the frustrating tsuris he subjected himself to"chachka, tchotchke, tsatske, tshatshke - (Yiddish) an inexpensive showy trinketschmaltz, schmalz, shmaltz - (Yiddish) excessive sentimentality in art or musicchutzpa, chutzpah, hutzpah - (Yiddish) unbelievable gall; insolence; audacityschmegegge, shmegegge - (Yiddish) baloney; hot air; nonsenseGerman language, High German, German - the standard German language; developed historically from West Germanicshmooze - (Yiddish) a warm heart-to-heart talkkvetch - (Yiddish) a nagging complaintmegillah - (Yiddish) a long boring tediously detailed account; "he insisted on giving us the whole megillah"tsoris - (Yiddish) trouble and sufferingnosh - (Yiddish) a snack or light mealknish - (Yiddish) a baked or fried turnover filled with potato or meat or cheese; often eaten as a snackbagel, beigel - (Yiddish) glazed yeast-raised doughnut-shaped roll with hard crustmishpachah, mishpocha - (Yiddish) the entire family network of relatives by blood or marriage (and sometimes close friends); "she invited the whole mishpocha"schmear, schmeer, shmear - (Yiddish) a batch of things that go together; "he bought the whole schmeer"chachka, tchotchke, tchotchkeleh, tsatske, tshatshke - (Yiddish) an attractive, unconventional womanchutzpanik - (Yiddish) a person characterized by chutzpaganef, ganof, gonif, goniff - (Yiddish) a thief or dishonest person or scoundrel (often used as a general term of abuse)kibitzer - (Yiddish) a meddler who offers unwanted advice to othersklutz - (Yiddish) a clumsy doltknocker - (Yiddish) a big shot who knows it and acts that way; a boastful immoderate personkvetch - (Yiddish) a constant complainermensch, mensh - a decent responsible person with admirable characteristicsmeshuggeneh, meshuggener - (Yiddish) a crazy foolnebbech, nebbish - (Yiddish) a timid unfortunate simpletonnudnick, nudnik - (Yiddish) someone who is a boring pestputz - (Yiddish) a fool; an idiotschlemiel, shlemiel - (Yiddish) a dolt who is a habitual bunglerschlep, schlepper, shlep, shlepper - (Yiddish) an awkward and stupid personschlimazel, shlimazel - (Yiddish) a very unlucky or inept person who fails at everythingschmo, schmuck, shmo, shmuck - (Yiddish) a jerkschnook, shnook - (Yiddish) a gullible simpleton more to be pitied than despised; "don't be such an apologetic shnook"schnorrer, shnorrer - (Yiddish) a scrounger who takes advantage of the generosity of othersshegetz - an offensive term for non-Jewish young man; "why does she like all those shkotzim?"shiksa, shikse - a derogatory term used by Jews to refer to non-Jewish womenyenta - (Yiddish) a woman who talks too much; a gossip unable to keep a secret; a woman who spreads rumors and scandalyenta - (Yiddish) a vulgar shrew; a shallow coarse termagantschtick, schtik, shtick, shtik - (Yiddish) a little; a piece; "give him a shtik cake"; "he's a shtik crazy"; "he played a shtik Beethoven"schemozzle, shemozzle - (Yiddish) a confused situation or affair; a mess

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